Despite claiming that I’m not going to do much talking while I unwrap, I briefly talk about how I haven’t explored the weirder side of shopping in Wellington before opening up the classic pair of Tomb of Dracula omnibuses. To help explain how this series came to be, I give an explanation of one of my favorite increasingly-forgotten aspects of comics history -Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. I also get to highlight one of my all-time favorite artists, Gene Colan.
Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.
Episode 57 features Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Volume 1 and Volume 2.
I have the Essential run of Tomb of Dracula, which includes the magazine issues in the 3rd omnibus. The first story does pick up after the end of the comic series, and it is written and drawn by Wolfman/Colan. But Colan only drew a few of the stories in the magazine, while Wolfman wrote about half the stories. The stories in the magazine also have little connection to the comic series or to each other. So only Dracula appears in them, not any of the supporting cast from the comic.
So to me, the first two omnibi collected a great run with a consistent creative team (after issue #7) that told a complete story ending in issue #70. The third omnibus collects a bunch of unrelated Dracula stories by a large group of creators.
I would only recommend picking up the third volume if you are a completist and find it for a discounted price.
On another note, I would love to see the Tomb of Dracula mini series by Wolfman/Colan released in the 90s through the Epic line to be collected. It only ties into the original comic series. It ignores the return of Dracula from the magazine and the subsequent vampire stories in X-Men and Dr. Strange. Despite this, I want to see it in a nice companion OHC to the omnibi.